What is incredibly curious about this is how clear the text looks on the camera screen. Why is that curious? Because it's almost impossible to read the text in real life!

The map you can see has been designed by computer (see http://www.bluedust.dontexist.com/lego/ for the HOWTO), which produces some rather bad aliasing effects around the text. When you photograph it, the computer acts like an un-alias, making it legible.

This is the (part) completed guide I made for my piece of the world map. By marking the various changes in colour _only_ I can verify the counts along each row and column. (It's easier to move one or two guide bricks, than the entire row.) From here I can (blindly) fill in each area, taking one brick in each hand and placing them simultaneously.